Adaptive chassis are known in the prior art. Adaptive chassis may include chassis components that are continuously adjustable or that allow discrete changing between fixed operating modes, such as characteristic curves. Regulated damping systems that use additional sensors to capture vehicle body movements and/or road surface excitations help to improve handling as well as comfort compared with a non-adaptive chassis.
For example, adaptive chassis may support different operating modes, allowed by the chassis configuration for different purposes, such as a stiffer chassis configuration for sporty driving styles. Other functions may also be enabled, such as automatic levelling, for example.
One disadvantage associated with such conventional chassis is that a sophisticated sensor system and fast regulating equipment in the chassis is needed, which in turn makes such systems expensive, so they are often not suitable for use in smaller vehicles or the basic models of certain model lines, but are reserved instead for the more comprehensive equipment packages or must be ordered in special equipment packages that are only available at additional cost.
Less expensive, two-stage damping systems are also known, though the configuration of these is still subject to the requirements that apply to a normal passive chassis. Particularly in the softest of the available configurations, which can be created using various damping characteristic curves, the safety of the vehicle must always be guaranteed even in the maximum loaded state. As a consequence, the softer or more comfortable configuration must be stiffer than is desirable for a configuration with the ideal comfort level. This limits the maximum degree of driving comfort achievable in the unloaded state. For this reason, the known multistage, passive chassis systems with multiple configurations are usually only used to improve the handling properties of a vehicle on stretches of road that lend themselves to sporty driving, provision is not made for greater driving comfort.
Document DE 10 2009 021 671 A1 discloses a device and method for regulated damping of a motor vehicle in which a set of adjustment parameters are stored for adjusting the damping of an unloaded vehicle depending on the conditions relating to its driving dynamics. A loading state of the vehicle is detected. The set of adjustment parameters are adjusted depending on the detected load state such that damping of the vehicle is adjusted according to the set of adjustment parameters depending on the conditions relating to the vehicle's driving dynamics. A driver of the vehicle can set the desired degree of damping by preselecting different damper modes.